 |
|
Suspended animation
An animated image is a simulation of movement created by displaying a series of pictures, or frames. Animation, an ITES (IT-enabled service) sector, is growing in India. Globally, multiple statistical projections forecast that the animation market will generate revenues between $50 billion and $70 billion by 2005. Indian producers are expected to rake in $1.5 billion by then. A lot of work is being outsourced to India from Hollywood. Our own Bollywood is relying heavily on it. Hindi films, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum, Lagaan, Devdas, Mohabatein, all had special animation effects. Movie-theatre’s cousin, the idiot box, also churns out innumerable cartoon serials for children. Not to forget the high-end games. Raman Madaan, business manager, Discreet, a division of Autodesk, USA, says that Indian animation characters are getting popular. "Indian serials are making their mark internationally and it is just a matter of time that they start challenging the Disney characters. Just wait and see. India has moved up the value chain and foreigners are relying on us for long-format animation at present." Outsourcing Capital costs are eliminated if companies outsource work. For a debutant, outsourcing makes more sense because a skilled worker offshore, who knows the nuances of the market, handles the animation work then, which improves the quality. Besides, it eliminates backlog and reduces costs. The cost of producing one hour of animation would be an estimated Rs 2 crore in the USA — it comes down to Rs 35 lakh if the work is outsourced to India. According to an animation industry study report, Indian animation production costs are the lowest as compared to the USA, Canada, South Korea and the Philippines — the other major global centres for animation production. "The world’s animation industry is $ 25 billion and predicted to grow at an estimated 20 per cent a year with Asia taking the lion’s share of it, according to a recent report from the US-based Computer Animation News People Inc. The report pegged the Indian animation industry at $ 500 million and predicted it will grow at 30 per cent annually in the near future," says Sudhir Mathur from Arena Multimedia. India has everything that offshore companies require. Low-costs, skilled workers and English-speaking people. "The primary reason for outsourcing is the low cost in India," says Naveen Gupta from Maya Academy, Chandigarh. Naveen avers that the animation industry is still in nascent stage in India and good animators are needed desperately. Talent pool An animator is an amalgamation of a talented graphic designer and an observer. A degree in Fine Arts helps. Though there are many IT education institutes that offer multimedia courses yet being creative matters more than such courses. To flourish as an animator, an artist has to have a keen sense of observation. Those in the animation industry opine that there is shortage of animation trainers and the pool of animators who have a required set of skills is limited in India. Currently, India just manages to produce 15,000 animators annually. The demand far exceeds the supply. South India produces a good number of such students but North India manages to contribute just a few to the kitty. Brahm Parkash, principal of Govt College of Arts, Chandigarh, says that talent pool being concentrated to south and other parts of India is due to the absence of MNCs and big corporate houses in the north. "Even if a student is keen, sponsors are hard to find," he says. He agrees that there is a need for revision in the present curriculum at the master’s level to make it more animation friendly. Dark clouds Currently, Indian animation players have a relatively low penetration in areas such as feature film production and gaming. Good animators are scarce and the gestation period is high. "There is dearth of talent and lack of infrastructure. Making an animated story takes three to four months of hard toil and heavy investment. It takes seven to eight years to get established as an animator. India at present is getting outsourced work that is on the low side of the value chain, like cleaning a drawing or making elementary sketch," says Rajiv Kaul from 3BD Interactive, a Web and multimedia developing organisation. Rajiv opines that if India does not gear up to meet the animation challenge, it may end up losing a lot of business to other South East Asian countries, especially Malaysia. Navdeep Malhotra, a New-Delhi based multimedia director, is also skeptical. "There has been talk about the animation industry doing well in India but I yet to see something happening. The Taiwanese, Malaysians and the Singaporeans are also good at it but not Indians. Perfection in each stitch is the last thing on our minds. The big production houses in the West will think twice before risking expensive projects to India, as we cannot think perfection. After all, animation work is not menial labour." Remedy On the financial front, India needs to take the cue from Korea and
Taiwan. The government of Korea funds animation ventures either on
partnership or hypothecation basis. This provides the necessary impetus
to the animation sector and high-end games industry. In Bangladesh,
World Bank is funding the animation industry. In India, however, there
has hardly been any government backing. Nasscom has proposed a four-pronged strategy to groom the animation sector. It has asked the industry to focus on creating demand by boosting outsourcing, provide access to easy and cheap finance, provide infrastructure and develop manpower talent in terms of skill-sets and numbers. The industry is growing.
All it needs is the right kind of support. |
||||||
|
||||||
WITH
the din about a tech slump relegated to the background, babies continue
to arrive in the Indian IT nursery ever since the world discovered India’s
competence in the field of chips and bytes. This nursery has nurtured
hardware techies, dotcommers, software geniuses, BPOs and call centre
talkers. While many of the wards have gone on through teens to maturity,
the kindergarten is not vacant. Among the fresh arrivals are animators.